


An Eye For An Eye

by mamabirb



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Blindness, Car Accidents, Drunk Driving, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-27 14:56:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14427933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mamabirb/pseuds/mamabirb
Summary: Maggie was crying, something had set her off. The afternoon of drinking on the couch had shifted into a sudden and unexpected drive. Her words frantic and slurred and she poured out her sorrows onto her eight year old son who was looking out the window. His nose and palms pressed against the cold glass glancing between thick rain drops as the grey sky above.





	1. Sunday Drive

Maggie was crying, something had set her off. The afternoon of drinking on the couch had shifted into a sudden and unexpected drive. Her words frantic and slurred and she poured out her sorrows onto her eight year old son who was looking out the window. His nose and palms pressed against the cold glass glancing between thick raindrops from the grey sky above. 

This wasn't out of the ordinary for him. They had done this many times, but what the young boy hadn't noticed was the way the car had begun to swerve a bit more heavily as they moved further and further into town. Richie Tozier didn't see the oncoming danger. No he was simply excited to be going somewhere. Deep down he was hoping they were possibly going to get ice cream or maybe another treat as they sometimes did when his mother fell off the wagon like this.  
There was no music playing from the radio but there was a tune stuck in the boy’s head a familiar hum that would haunt him for years to come. That of screeching tires, bending metal, and the snapping of his glasses tangled in with the sickening crack that rang out in his ears when his head flung forward making contact with the dashboard. There was pain everywhere so it was hard to focus in on just where it hurt most. Something warm trickled down that boy’s face but in his current state he wouldn’t have the ability to identify that it was his own blood now coating his fair skin. Something was off, his vision was poor yes but now it seemed far worse. The world was flickering on and off like someone were flipping a light switch rapidly.

Small distressed whines tore from the boy as he felt like he was about to vomit. Mind spinning, unable to grasp just what had taken place. That his mother hadn’t been paying attention, that the wine that now took hold of her mind caused her to move into the wrong lane and into an oncoming track, or that even now she seemed to be unaware of the damage her son had taken due to her intoxication. There were cries and voice of onlookers who now closed in upon the small crushed up vehicle like a pack of wolves upon a dying doe. The sound of sirens in the distance like a haunting cry of some distressed creature searching for the cure to its suffering.  
Richie was pulled from the vehicle shortly after, he could recall the way rocks stabbed at his back as he lay there. Maybe if he wasn’t in such a state he would have complied about the discomfort or about just how cold he was but right now his mind was swirling out of control. Nothing left, his being slowly was consumed by a numbness as his visions seemed to almost dim.

It was becoming hard for the small child to even keep his eyes open at his point. The last thing he would remember from this moment was the color of the sky above him. The patches of blue that peaked out between light grey cotton clouds overhead. How vivid and bright it all looked. That was before everything, before he’d wake with such a terrible headache and so many hushed voices. To the warm hand wrapped around his own, but also to the darkness. To the almost unbearable darkness that seemed so unnatural.


	2. Pinkie Promises

Richie woke to the smell of bleach, that scent that lingers in the halls of hospitals. To cover the smell of disease and death. Though there was an IV in his arm giving him a steady dose of drugs to dull his mind and body to the pain there was enough of an ache still lingering within his brain to make the small child further aware that he currently wasn’t laying in his own bed. Not tucked between familiar sheets in a familiar house that he had known since the first memory was engraved into his brain.

This wasn’t home. It was as simple as that or at least that was the only simple thing about the situation. At first the Tozier boy thought that perhaps there was something laying over his eyes. Like a bandage or cloth. Something acting as a thin veil that allowed little to now light in. Currently his vision was dark but not completely. There was a dim greyish light allowing him to make out vague shapes in places where bright light shined through the window only a foot or so away from his bed.Though when he reach up the tips of his fingers would feel only smooth flesh under his touch. No cloth, not gauze, nothing but his own being. Here and there as he further searched his face for clues as to what was wrong he could feel scabbed over cuts and stitches that littered his skin. If he could see himself in the moment he would have seen how he looked as though he were brought back from the dead.

Small whimpers came from Richie as he tried to piece together just what was going on but he was young and the world hadn’t sunk its teeth into him quite like this before. Leaving him inexperienced and lost. 

He cocked his head to the side as a familiar voice reached him. That of his father. His voice low and hushed but full of rage as he snapped at someone. Someone crying. Someone he would later in life come to associate with car accidents and darkness. 

Trying his best Richie attempted to make out what all was said but he just wasn’t in any current condition to really follow along. Only bits of the conversation really reached him and even then they didn’t fit together well enough to give him the full story. Something about a child being ruined, something about not future followed but a comment about separation. If he were older maybe he might have understood his father was talking about him, about how his mother had caused terrible damage to him and now his father wanted a divorce and custody of Richie, but Richie was young. How could the boy know?

Pressing his head into the pillow Tozier whimpered. Distressed that he was alone, alone in a way that was worse than most the forms of isolation he had known before this point in his life. Mostly due to the fact that the world was grey and shadow like. It felt as though he were being embraced by a void and with that touch, that caress came and almost unshakable chill that threatened to swallow him whole.

Then it came. A soft gentle touch. So warm it felt as though the being who had come to his were crafted from stray rays of sunlight. Richie had heard the light footsteps nor the shuffling of his visitor as they approached. So when his hand was scooped up in the other’s and held firmly, lovingly the dark haired boy yelped and flinched as though he had been punched in the chest.

Stanley Uris had come to see his friend. He was worried and for good reason. Richie hadn’t shown up for school for three days and while Richie had a tendency to skip it wasn’t like him to skip and not come and bother him or one of their other friends after school to play. His first thought was that perhaps he was sick. People got sick all the time and when Derry got real cold and the weather became nothing more than a downpour of icy rain it always seemed like the flu would begin to jump from person to person until everyone had, had a dance with that damned virus. At least that was his hope.

Needless to say his worry and panic spiked when he learned Richie was in the hospital. The details were lost on him as all his mother had told him at the time was that his friend had been hurt. Hurt meant a lot of things. Hurt could mean something a simple as a paper cut but hurt could also mean someone wasn’t long for this world and considering he hadn’t seen his friend for more than twenty four hours his mind was jumping to the worst possible conclusions.

When he came to him he half expected Richie to not be himself, to be little more than bandages and casts. That was what Eddie had told him. Said that if he was there he was probably covered in cuts and bruises and while that wasn’t too far off what Stan saw before him was still his Richie. A bit worse for wear but it was still the goof ball he had met some time ago. Those deep blue eyes were hazy and seemed to be slightly vacant but the small curly haired boy chalked it up to the medications they were probably giving him.  
He was just happy to see his friend was alive and well for the most part and he was excited to see his glasses missing. That was good right? Maybe they had fixed his eyes. They had performed some kind of magic trick to correct his poor eyesight. That was the first thought that came to him. Stanley felt a bit of excitement growing within his chest before it was extinguished by a hint of anxiety. Unsure of what words to use at the moment.  
“He-Hello?” his friend stammered. Finger tips trembling in Stanley’s hold. He didn’t know how was beside him and though they were being careful with him that didn’t really put him completely as ease currently.

“Hey” Stanley was only a few months younger than Richie and like him he too possessed a soft feminine voice as puberty was still a few years off. Though Stanley had always been taller than him that was one thing Richie remembered. Stanley was taller than him not by much, only a few inches but it was something Stanley was proud of. That he was taller than Richie.

Richie opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Nothing was right and his skill of never shutting up was suddenly of no use to him. Things were slowly sinking. That his eyes were worse than they had been. That something was terribly wrong with his parents.He moved to face Stanley but all he saw was shadows and smudged grey where ever there was bright enough light. He could make out shapes thanks to light but colors and the rest of the details of the world were lost on him now.  
As he sat there letting this things come to light Stanley noticed his friend's eyes become wet as tears built up. Stress and fear visible upon his face and Stanley almost instantly came to terms with the truth. Richie hadn’t gotten better, something was wrong. Terribly wrong and now guilt set in. 

“You know you scared me right?” Stanley asked breaking the silence hoping some conversation might help distract Tozier. “Eddie swore up and down that you caught something and that you weren’t coming back.” He paused giving Richie’s hand a slight squeeze trying his best to reassure him that everything was still alright. That he was there and that he wasn’t going anywhere.

“You’re not allowed to scare me like that anymore, you got that?” Thoughts came rushing to the Uris boy. What if it had been worse? What if Richie had lost his life? That thought terrified him deeply. He wasn’t even sure that he was ready to face that idea so his shoved it away and buried it deep within his subconscious.   
They were kind words. That all they were. Stanley meant well, and yet they hurt so much. They cut deep like a knife. That was all it took. Richie was in tears. Yet it didn’t feel the same to him. The tears felt as though they weren’t even coming from him. All Tozier felt was the sudden warmth of them traveling down his cheeks further proving that his eye were no longer his own. 

Without hesitation Stanley drew his now sobbing friend to his chest embracing him tightly to try and sooth him. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. They were just kids. In all the stories he had read things never went like this. The children at the end of the stories were always alright.  
So it was here in this little hospital bed that Stanley whispered a promise to his friend. Intertwining his pinkie with the other sealing their fate. As of today things were going to be different, what neither of them knew however was if it were to be for the better or for worse.


End file.
